Category Archives: Hitting
Hitters, Math, and Being Prepared
Since a lot of the U.S. has either gone back to school or is about to, I thought it would be a good time to talk about math. Specifically, the math of hitting in a game and why letting a good pitch go by early may not be such a good idea.
At its most basic, hitters are given a maximum of 5 pitches that count in each at bat. (Yes, you can get more if you’re fouling off pitches, but for the most part the goal is to hit the ball fair rather than foul it off so let’s stick with that.)
If you just stand there and get to a 3-2 count, that means 3 of the pitches were judged not good pitches to hit by the umpire and 2 were determined to be good. Again, you can debate umpire strike zones all day but for this argument we’ll assume the blue has a good zone.
So that means you had 2 out of 5 opportunities to get a good hit by swinging at a good pitch. Put another way, less than half the pitches were good ones.
Now let’s bring in those foul balls. Maybe they were good pitches you missed, or maybe they actually weren’t good pitches but they were close enough that you (rightfully) felt compelled to swig.
If you had 5 foul balls and 3 of them were borderline. you now had a total of 10 pitches, of which 4 were good and 6 were not. You’re still at the same 40% mark as before.
On the other hand, if one more of those pitches was borderline, you now had 3 good and 7 not-so-good pitches and your percentage of good pitches to hit dropped from 40% to 30%.
Ah, but we’re not done yet.
It’s pretty rare for hitters to hit pitches in all zones equally well. Most have zones where they hit better – say up and in and up and out – and zones where they don’t hit the ball well at all, even though they are legitimate strikes.
So now, of those 3 or 4 good pitches we outlined earlier, maybe only one was in a zone you liked. Which means out of the 10 pitches in that at bat, you only got 1 truly good pitch to hit.
No wonder hitting is so difficult.
Now stretch that across an entire game. If you get 3 at bats, you may only have gotten 3-6 pitches out of 30 that were where you can be confident you could hit the ball hard somewhere.
Pretty low odds, wouldn’t you say? Add in that a hard-hit ball could still be fielded for an out by a fielder and it is amazing anyone has a decent batting average.
The point of all of this is, as a hitter, there is a pretty good chance you’re only going to see 1 truly good pitch per at bat, so you’d better be ready when it comes.
Keep in mind the pitcher’s goal is to not throw you ANY good pitches to hit. At the college level and even high school or higher travel ball levels the opposing team may have a book on your that shows where you like the ball and where you don’t. Guess where they’re going to try to throw it?
At the younger levels, many of the pitchers don’t have full command of their pitches yet so their locations may be a little to a lot erratic. The forgiving term for that is “effectively wild,” i.e., they can’t hit a location reliably, but even if they’re off they’re close enough to the strike zone that it works for them anyway.
We’ve all known pitches like that.
Whatever the case with the pitcher, again, when she does throw a pitch you can hit well you have to be ready to hit it. For me, that means you have to assume EVERY pitch is going to be that pitch, load up and start your swing as if that’s true, and then hold up if you see it’s not.
After all, you don’t want to waste the very few really good pitches you’re going to see by realizing too late that you should be swinging. If you’re only going to see 2 or 3 hittable pitches in a game, you need to make the most of them when they come.
That includes the first pitch you see, by the way. I know some hitters don’t like swinging at the first pitch, and some coaches preach letting the first pitch go by so you can get a look at how the pitcher is throwing. I’m not a fan of either approach.
Keep in mind pitchers are coached to get ahead in the count. Many teams place a lot of emphasis on first pitch strikes and track that stat religiously.
It would be a shame to let the best pitch you’re going to see in that at bat go by automatically just because, don’t you think? At the very least, on that first pitch you should be looking for a particular pitch and your best location to hit, and if you see it go ahead and swing with enthusiasm.
It will take a lot of pressure off of you and keep you from having to go into survival mode later in that at bat. If your coach insists on no swinging at the first pitch you have to abide by that, of course, but hopefully he/she can be convinced to at least green light a pitch that’s in your happy place.
The math is the math. Hitters usually don’t get a lot of opportunities to hit good pitches, so you need to be ready when they do come along.
Take advantage of good pitches when they come and you can make the math work for you.
Teacher photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
Product Review: Cimmaron Safety Net and Frame Makes BP Safer
Whenever I see a coach doing front toss at practice from 15 feet away without a net to hide behind, my first thought is always “That coach must not have much faith in him/herself as a hitting coach.”
But the reality is (most of the time anyway) that they would use a screen if they had access to one. Sure, you could try using a Bownet or similar product but the blowback on a hard-hit ball directly into the net would probably negate any value in setting it up.
Effective protection, even from some 10 year olds, requires a much sturdier protective screen – the type you see at high schools, colleges, batting cages, and professional stadiums. The trouble there is your typical youth coach, or even a high school coach who has to practice at an off-campus field, can’t exactly cart around a heavy-duty screen with a heavy-duty net, nor do they have the time to assemble and disassemble it with all the nuts and bolts that are required.
For years I had that problem solved with the old Jugs Snap-Together Screen. It was the perfect solution – a heavy-duty net that slipped over a heavy-duty frame that was easy to put up and take down. The push–in snapping mechanism meant you could slide the pieces together, then have the snaps hold them in place. Then, when it was time to leave the field, I could quickly pull it all apart and put it back in the carrying bag, ready to transport anywhere I needed it.
All good things must come to an end, however, and last fall that screen gave up the ghost. Some of the snaps didn’t work anymore, and the net was beginning to fray, which increased the risk of a hard-hit ball breaking through.
Since Jugs doesn’t offer that product anymore I searched and searched for something similar to replace it, That’s when I came across the Cimmaron 6×4 #42 Safety Net and Screen at Epic Sports.
It’s a little smaller than the Jugs screen was, but it was still big enough to hide behind after throwing a pitch. (One time when it pays to be a little under 6 feet tall.)
The description mentioned a snapping mechanism but there weren’t any closeup photos to show if what they meant and what I thought of were the same. But with no other viable alternatives I figured I’d give it a try and made the purchase.
I’m happy to report it’s everything I hoped it would be.
The 1-1/2 inch steel tubular frame is lightweight yet very strong and confidence-inspiring. The net, made from #42 nylon, has held up well after take some direct hits; I have full confidence in it.
It’s also a little easier to assemble than my old protective screen was, probably because it’s a little smaller than the old one so there are fewer pieces to assemble. There are three pieces that comprise the bottom, two along the sides, and three that form the top and the upper part of the sides.
All parts have a number sticker on them that correspond to the supplied diagram that shows you how to put it together. The first time I did it I had a little trouble figuring out what went where but that was due to operator error.
I didn’t bring the diagram with me to the field, and I then assumed the two pieces that form the top corners worked the same way as the Jugs screen, i.e., the long part goes across the top and the short part goes down to join the side. When that didn’t work it was easy enough to figure out how to put it together properly and it’s been a breeze ever since.
The net is also easy to put on. It has a pillowcase-type of structure – the top and sides are closed while the bottom is open, so you can quickly slip it on and off the assembled frame. There is also a nylon rope at the bottom that allows you to secure the bottom of the net so you don’t catch a hard ground ball to the feet.
Unlike the Jugs net, there is no hole in center to pitch through. That’s ok, though, because I am used to turning L-screens with the tall side to the right and pitching around it, so it’s essentially the same.
It’s even a plus in some ways because a ball with a little tail to it won’t come across the frame, unlike the hole-type where I got clipped a few times with a line drive even though I swear I wasn’t standing in the hole.
The only downside I see to this product is that it doesn’t come with a carrying back. That seems like an oversight given that the quick up-and-down construction makes me think it was designed for portability.
Fortunately I still had the Jugs screen carrying bag so I’m using that. I also tried a speaker stand carrying bag from Sweetwater, which worked ok too. Neither one is quite deep enough to fully close because of the design of the two base pieces, but they are both wide enough and will both work as long as you’re careful getting it in and out of the vehicle.
I’m guessing the manufacturer opted not to offer a bag to keep the price down, but it sure would be nice for one to be offered even if it’s a separately purchased accessory for those of us who need to cart it in and out on a regular basis.
Speaking of price, the Cimmaron protective screen is relative bargain in my opinion. It’s just $179 for the frame and net. When compared to the cost (and time) of a visit to the emergency department or immediate care facility after taking a line drive to the head it’s definitely worth it.
And if you want to add padding around the frame it costs a little more but if your goal is to put it up and take it down the same day it feels to me like you’re better off without the padding.
So if you’re a coach who is pitching front toss with real balls to your team and want to feel a little safer while doing it, check out the Cimmaron 6×4 #42 Safety Net and Frame. In my opinion it’s worth every penny. And yes, I paid for my own.
My good friend Jay Bolden and I have started a new podcast called “From the Coach’s Mouth” where we interview coaches from all areas and levels of fastpitch softball as well as others who may not be fastpitch people but have lots of interesting ideas to contribute.
You can find it here on Spotify, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re searching, be sure to put the name in quotes, i.e., “From the Coach’s Mouth” so it goes directly to it.
Give it a listen and let us know what you think. And be sure to hit the Like button and subscribe to Life in the Fastpitch Lane for more content like this.
The Power of a Kind Word (or Two)
A couple of nights ago one of my hitting students, we’ll call her Persephone (for no reason other than it amuses me), came in for her first lesson in a few weeks. She is playing high school ball right now and has been tearing it up for the most part, but Persephone has had a little less success lately and decided it was time for a tune-up.
Her dad walked in before her and gave me a heads-up that Persephone had had a rough game that night, going 0-3, and was also having a little family-based teen angst on top of it. Always nice to have some warning in those cases.
When Persephone came in (wish I’d picked a name that is easier to type) I could see her mental state was no minor issue. She was an emotional pot ready to boil over.
She was trying to keep the lid on it, but it was rattling pretty hard. Most of the time she is a pretty even-keel, laid back young woman but even the toughest among us can get overwhelmed at times, and that’s what was happening here.
We started into the lesson and I asked her about the game. She told me she just couldn’t hit the pitcher, and in particular was unable to touch her curveball. Persephone told me she was swinging and missing it by quite a bit.
Her dad had told me in the beginning that it wasn’t just Persephone who had that trouble that night; the opposing pitcher was one walk shy of a perfect game. But Persephone is a team leader who sets high standards for her performance, so it didn’t matter to her that everyone else struggled; she felt she could have and should have hit that girl anyway.
I talked to her some about the mental game, staying focused on the process instead of outcomes, keeping it simple, how to relieve stress at the plate, all of that. It helped somewhat.
When I went to front toss I identified a mechanical flaw too – she was pulling her front side out instead of hitting around it, so it’s no wonder she couldn’t touch those outside curveballs. She made the correction and started hitting a little better, but I could see she was still in her own head too much.
Then the miracle happened.
There was another hitting instructor doing a lesson in the cage next to us. His name is Dave Doerhoefer, and we have known each other for more years than either of us probably cares to admit.
Dave is a friend as well as a great coach, and we often have chats about the current state of the sport, especially when it comes to teams playing too many games and not practicing and teaching enough.
He was working with his student on firming up her front side as she went into rotation instead of letting it collapse but she was having trouble grasping the concept. His line of sight took him directly toward our cage and he saw how hard Persephone was swinging the bat and how sweet her technique was, so he asked Persephone if his student could watch her a few times because she has such a nice swing.
It was literally like the clouds had parted and the sun was doing a happy dance in her heart.
Dave’s question totally pulled Persephone out of her self-inflicted funk and her face just lit up. Then she started lighting up my front toss pitches too – including the outside ones.
That one simple question, which was also in effect a great, unsolicited compliment from someone that had no stake in the process but just liked what she was doing, turned Persephone’s entire approach around.
Later I thanked Dave for his kind words and told him what it had meant to Persephone. He shrugged and thanked me for telling him that, but admitted he had no motivation in it other than wanting his student to see another hitter doing what he wanted her to do in real time.
Now, I will say Dave may come to regret his kindness because in addition to being a hitting instructor he is also a varsity softball coach at Vernon Hills High School, and his team may play Persephone’s somewhere along the way – perhaps the State playoffs. But I’m sure he’s ok with it because Dave’s #1 focus is on helping fastpitch softball players get better, no matter if they are his or his opponents’.
The point here is it didn’t take much to make Persephone’s day and help her go from feeling bad about herself when she came in to walking on air with a big smile on her face when she left. You have the power to do the same.
When you’re at the field and you see someone do something great, whether it’s a driving big hit or making a diving catch or throwing a knee-buckling changeup or making a heads-up slide, don’t just admire it to yourself. Find that girl after the game and tell her – even if she’s on the opposing team. That goes for parents as well as coaches.
You never know what someone else has been going through, and those few kind words may be just the inspiration they need to keep fighting and overcome their struggles. It only takes a few seconds, but the ripple effect from that encounter might just alter the trajectory of a life in a positive way, even if just by a few degrees.
And the best part? Offering up a sincere compliment now and then doesn’t cost you anything but a little thought and time.
I know some of the happiest stories my students tell me are when an opposing coach or parents tells them they did a great job. So this weekend, get out there and if you see something good say something good about it.
You never know who needs to hear it.
My good friend Jay Bolden and I have started a new podcast called “From the Coach’s Mouth” where we interview coaches from all areas and levels of fastpitch softball as well as others who may not be fastpitch people but have lots of interesting ideas to contribute.
You can find it here on Spotify, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re searching, be sure to put the name in quotes, i.e., “From the Coach’s Mouth” so it goes directly to it.
Give it a listen and let us know what you think. And be sure to hit the Like button and subscribe to Life in the Fastpitch Lane for more content like this.
Lead photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Checkmate! Why Fastpitch Hitting Is Like a Chess Match
Ok, before we begin I am going to flat-out admit I am not much of a chess player. I never liked it as a kid – too slow and boring for me – and can’t remember the last time I played a full game.
Probably when I was in high school, which was a very looooooong time ago.
But I do know enough about it to understand how it’s played from a macro level. Especially after watching The Queen’s Gambit series.
At its core, chess is a game of strategy and anticipation. You don’t go for the kill right away.
You make certain moves in a particular order to put yourself in a position to strike when the chances of success are highest. And you anticipate what your opponent is going to try to do to disrupt that strategy.
In that way it’s a lot like hitting.
The instinct of many young hitters (and more than a few older ones if we’re being honest) is to attack the ball with their bat as soon as it’s pitched. In other words, they initiate the swing with their hands and let the body follow that lead.
That can work sometimes. After all, a broken clock is right twice a day (unless it’s digital, in which case it probably doesn’t work at all) and a blind monkey can find a banana now and then.
It is not, however, an approach that is going to yield regular success, especially in higher levels of play.
Just like in chess, the first move shouldn’t be the main attack. It should be to get the pieces in place so when you do attack the ball you stand a better chance of hitting it.
That’s why a sequence of hips-shoulders-bat after the front foot lands is so important.
The hips have two jobs. The first is to generate power.
The largest and strongest muscles in the body are located in the lumbar-pelvic-hip complex (LPHC). The rotational movement of the hips and core muscles get the body moving in a manner that accelerates as it goes, creating power that can then be transferred up the chain when those same muscles suddenly decelerate the hips.
By delaying the shoulders momentarily, instead of allowing them to ride along with the hips, you create a stretch from the front hip to the back shoulder that acts as a rubber band, helping accelerate the shoulders and ultimately the bat forward rather than using the arms to do it. This frees the arms and hands to focus on directing the bat to the ball rather than yanking it wildly to try to increase the energy.
But it’s not just about power. That same movement also helps position the upper body, bringing it to the launch position without having to commit the arms and bat to the ball.
This delay give the hitter more time to see the ball and brings the bat closer to it so the actual launch of the bat occurs over a shorter distance, increasing the chances of making good, hard contact. After all, it’s easier to hit a target from close-in than far away, particularly if it’s not exactly coming in on a straight line.
And that’s where the chess analogy comes in. Rather than rushing the swing, an effective, quality hitter will first get all the pieces in place, then unleash the swing with a controlled explosion when the time is right.
Whereas a weaker hitter will place all her focus on simply getting the bat to the ball from the beginning of the swing.
The other part is the strategic element, the cat-and-mouse game between the hitter and the pitcher. A good pitcher will either be trying to pitch to her strength or the hitter’s perceived or known weaknesses so the hitter must understand what those are and adjust accordingly.
For example, if the pitcher is heavily dependent on her riseball to get hitters out, the hitter must have a strategy to deal with it. That can be to try to stand a little taller and stay on top of it, or look down and lay off those riseballs entirely while hoping the umpire doesn’t have a high strike zone.
The hitter can also look for patterns in the pitch caller’s pitch sequences. For example, if the pitcher is throwing changeups consistently in 0-2 counts, the hitter should be looking for a changeup if she goes 0-2.
In fact, against a tough pitcher she may concede the first two strikes to get to that easier to hit changeup. I’ve seen that work.
Hitters need to be aware of their own weaknesses as well. If a hitter has trouble with outside pitches, and is playing against an opponent who knows that, she should expect a steady diet of outside pitches until she proves she can hit them.
In that case, the strategy might be to crowd the plate and turn the outside pitch into more of a middle pitch – particularly if the hitter is strong on inside pitches. Doing that might even bait the other team into throwing inside to try to handcuff her – at which point she can turn on a pitch she likes and send it off like a rocket.
This is what makes fastpitch softball hitting so interesting and challenging. While it definitely requires a high element of physicality, there are also strategic elements built in that will affect and are affected by the physical components.
No wonder hitting has been called the most difficult feat in all of sports.
So keep that in mind when you’re working with hitters of all ages, levels, and abilities. Have a strategy for how you’re approaching each pitch, and a plan for how you’ll move the pieces in place to execute that strategy, and you’ll greatly increase your hitters’ chances of success.
Checkmate!
My good friend Jay Bolden and I have started a new podcast called “From the Coach’s Mouth” where we interview coaches from all areas and levels of fastpitch softball as well as others who may not be fastpitch people but have lots of interesting ideas to contribute.
You can find it here on Spotify, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re searching, be sure to put the name in quotes, i.e., “From the Coach’s Mouth” so it goes directly to it.
Give it a listen and let us know what you think. And be sure to hit the Like button and subscribe to Life in the Fastpitch Lane for more content like this.
Chess photo by Gladson Xavier on Pexels.com
A $500 Bat Won’t Fix a $5 Swing
Softball bat technology has certainly come a long way from the days when an $80 Louisville Slugger burgundy bottle bat was what every fastpitch hitter dreamed of owning. (Linda Lensch I’m looking at you.)
The materials and construction of today’s bats are designed to maximize distance and power, turning even so-so contact into a potential dinger. At least that’s the promise.
Yet while it’s true that the stiffness of advanced carbon fiber or other materials and “trampoline effect” of the specially engineered barrels do tend to yield better results (all else being equal), there’s one thing they can’t make up for: a poorly engineered swing. That’s something to keep in mind as you start to look at where to spend your money to try to create better results at the plate this season.
I know that $500 bat sure looks tempting in the online ads. These days bat manufacturers are doing a great job of making their bats not only powerful but beautiful.
Heck, a lot of them will let you customize the colors and graphics yourself, which is a wonderful option if you have an eye for that sort of thing and can be a disaster if all your taste is in your mouth, as an old boss of mine used to say. Still, as long as it’s beautiful to you it’s the stuff dreams are made of.
But while they may make your socks roll up and down when you look at the bat, all the pretty colors and cool graphics in the world won’t help when you take it up to the plate and are staring down a pitcher. At that point you’d better know how to swing it.
It comes come down to which you think will work better: a great swing with a cheap bat or a great bat with a terrible swing.
Sure, it’s possible with today’s technology that you can get a few great or at least decent hits with any ol’ swing. All you need to do is get the bat on the ball and the bat will do the rest, right?
That, however, is more of a “hope” or a “law of averages” strategy. Swing it enough times and you’re bound to hit something sometime – or at least you’d assume so.
But the reality is you’ll probably do a lot better making sure your swing itself is in order – that it is sequenced properly, you understand how time a pitcher, you are capable of making the fine adjustments to the swing once you get a better look at the pitch, etc. – before you go spending your limited budget on the shiny new bat.
Think of it like a guitar player. If you go to hear someone play who hasn’t been at it that long, he or she may have a $20,000 Martin acoustic guitar but it’s still going to sound like someone hacking away at an instrument they don’t really know.
But if you go to hear a great guitarist, he or she will draw amazing, mesmerizing sounds out of a $200 special from Sweetwater. Because the tone and technique is in the hands of the player, not the instrument.
It’s the same with that $500 bat you’re coveting. The only way to get the results you want from that big ticket expenditure is to first make sure you know how to use it.
Rather than investing in that fancy new bat, first make sure you’re investing in yourself. Get some lessons from a qualified hitting instructor.
Put in time in the cages to work on what the instructor is telling you. Get comfortable with your swing mechanics and your approach at the plate.
See someone about your mental game if you find you’re great in the cage but struggle in games. In other words, get your house in order.
Then, when you’re sure you’re ready, have at it. Search the Internet or better yet go to a local store or facility where you can try out various bats to see which one feels and sounds best to you – there can be a huge difference even between bats with similar specs.
Then make your purchase knowing you not only have a $500 bat but a $1 million swing to go with it.
By the way, this thought also applies to pitchers and fielders too. Before you go spending money on new gloves or shoes or gimmicks, invest in yourself and what you’ll do with those things first.
You’ll probably like the results a whole lot better.
Energy Creation: The Rolling Snowballs Corollary
This seems like an apt analogy since as I write this much of the USA is still dealing with a fair amount of snow, including many places that rarely get any. Welcome to my world, although we actually haven’t gotten much all winter.
Anyway, the other day I was trying to explain the concept of acceleration to a young pitcher. We were talking about the need for her arm to pick up speed down the back side of the circle instead of staying at one speed if she wants to throw harder.
Then an idea hit me, thanks to a childhood misspent watching Saturday morning cartoons.
“Think about a snowball rolling down a hill,” I said. “At first, the snowball is small. But as it rolls down the hill, the snowball starts picking up more snow, getting bigger and bigger. Then, when the snowball reaches the bottom and stops, the snow explodes all over the place!
“That’s what needs to happen with your pitching arm,” I continued. “As you come down the back side you start moving your arm faster, which gathers more energy like the snowball gathers snow, until the ball explodes out of your hand at the end.”
That made perfect sense to her. The more the snowball moves downhill the faster it goes and the more snow (energy) it picks up.
Ergo (love that word, rarely get to use it in a sentence), getting that arm to move faster down the back side of the circle is critical to maximizing speed. Logical, right?
But that doesn’t mean pitchers can always do it. Some will do it naturally. Others will do it once your bring it up. But some have to unlearn old movement patterns and replace them with new ones before they can execute it.
One of the best ways to help them learn that acceleration is by moving the pitcher in close to a net or tarp, having her stand with her feet and body at 45 degrees to the target, and then throwing with a full circle, emphasizing the speed on the back side of the circle. You can also do that with six or eight ounce plyo balls into a wall.
I also prefer they move their feet as they do it since body timing is also crucial to great execution.
The key here is feeling the arm moving as quickly as it can. But there’s another caveat.
To really make this work and get the acceleration, the arm has to be loose and the humerus (upper arm) has to be leading with the forearm trailing behind, i.e., throwing with whip. Moving the whole arm in one piece, as you do when you point the ball toward second base and push it down the circle, will not yield the same level of results. In fact, it could cause injuries.
Once the pitcher can execute this movement from in-close, start moving her further away and trying it again. Take your time with this process, because if you move her back too fast and she perceives the target is too far away she will start muscling it to make sure it gets there rather than letting it move naturally.
At each step, take a video and look to make sure there is at least somewhat of a bend or hook at the elbow instead of a straight arm. If not, move her back up or slow her down temporarily so she can get the proper mechanics.
Then speed it up and try again.
By the way, the energy snowball concept is not just for pitchers. This type of acceleration into release or contact is also critical for overhand throwing and hitting.
Or pretty much any other athletic skill requiring power.
Now, if you’re an adult with lots of real-world experience, all of this may seem obvious to you. You may even be wondering why I’m spending so much time on it.
But a young player, or even a young adult player, may not have the real-world understanding of basic physics or biomechanics to tie acceleration into energy production. For them, it’s helpful to put it in a context that they can easily comprehend based on what they have already seen.
Even if it comes from a Saturday morning cartoon.
If you have a player who’s struggling to understand the concept of acceleration into action, try talking about the rolling snowball. It just might break the ice with them.
My good friend Jay Bolden and I have started a new podcast called “From the Coach’s Mouth” where we interview coaches from all areas and levels of fastpitch softball as well as others who may not be fastpitch people but have lots of interesting ideas to contribute.
You can find it here on Spotify, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re searching, be sure to put the name in quotes, i.e., “From the Coach’s Mouth” so it goes directly to it.
Give it a listen and let us know what you think. And be sure to hit the Like button and subscribe to Life in the Fastpitch Lane for more content like this. Commercial over.
Snow roller photo by Perduejn, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Weather Outside Frightful? You Can Still Practice Part 2
Last week we talked about how even though the weather outside may be bad it doesn’t mean you can’t practice your pitching.
Well, I must have called out the softball gods because wouldn’t you know it we got hit with a couple of rounds of snow. Nothing major, but enough for a potential white Christmas if it sticks around.
So since the point has been proven this week we’re going to cover a few indoor practice ideas for…
Hitting
- Dry swings – Millions, maybe billions, of words have been written about how to hit. We’re not going to add to that total today. This is more about taking whatever you’ve been taught and applying it in a way that can lock in muscle memory. All you need is a bat and enough space to swing it without damaging anything. (In a pinch, you can also use the core from a roll of wrapping paper.) Get in your stance and work on whatever you need to work on. Having trouble separating your hips from your shoulders or leading with your hips? Just do the first part of the swing. Working on your bat angle? Start from the point right before that and bring it in. Or go through full swings. If you can do it in front of a mirror without putting the mirror in danger even better.
- Tee swings – You’ll need a little more space for it, but if you the room to set up a tee and a net you can get a lot of quality practice time in working on your swing as well. A basement or garage is the obvious choice, but any empty or unfinished room that’s at least 10 x 10 will do. If you’re worried about stray balls doing damage get a set of foam balls or use some rolled up pair of socks in place of a regular ball. All you need is something to aim at and to see how the “ball” is coming off the bat.
- Throwing balls into a net – Bear with me on this one. All you need is a couple of balls, or a couple of rolled up pair of socks, and somewhere to throw them. Get in your stance holding a ball in either hand. Then go through your swing motion and as you get to the point where you would make contact, let go of the ball. I would recommend starting with the bottom hand but you do you. Try to make the balls go out as straight as you can. This exercise will help you with extension and getting the rhythm of the overall swing.
- Vision Training – One of the major contributors to quality hitting is your ability to see the ball well. If you can pick it up quickly and track it all the to the plate effectively you’ll have a much better chance of driving it hard on a regular basis. There are lots of things you can do to train your vision. There are commercial apps such as VizualEdge that enable you to train multiple parameters from the comfort and privacy of your computer or other device. If you prefer a more 3D approach, WinReality offers a virtual reality system that will put you right in the middle of the action as well. But there are other, less costly options as well. If you have a gaming system, first-person shooter games have been shown to improve peripheral vision as well as visual acuity (the ability to change focus quickly). They’re also a good way to blow off steam when you’re feeling pressured. You can even place red, yellow, and green beads along an 8 to 10 foot piece of string, tie one end to a doorknob or other object, and spread the beads out along the string. Then place the other end of the swing against your nose and focus on the different colored beads rapidly, starting with the farthest bead and working your way to the closest one. Find what works best for you and train your eyes just like you’d train your body – hard and often.
- Balance training – Hitting is tough enough without being off-balance on top of it. So the better balance you have, the better you’ll be able to control the bat through all the twisting and turning forces required to hit the ball hard. To help improve your balance, try going through the hitting motion (with or without a bat) while standing on an unstable surface such as a stability pillow or stability pad. Or anything you have laying around, like an old rug, that will challenge you to keep your balance. If you can groove your swing with one of those you’ll be well-prepared for when you’re on solid ground. Or one of those tournaments where the grounds crew leaves before the first pitch is thrown.
So there you go – five ideas on how to work on your hitting when you can’t go outside or get to an actual facility. Be a little careful with a couple of them, since they do involve creating actual projectiles.
But if you’re diligent you’ll be amazed at how much you improve. And delighted that you will have gotten all the basics out of the way so you can do more fun things at lessons or team practices.
Snowstorm photo by Jeffrey Czum on Pexels.com
12 Ways Fastpitch Softball Has Changed Over the Last 25 Years
It is always tempting to think that the way things are today is the way they have always been. After all, it can be difficult to imagine things being significantly different if you’ve never known anything else.
Well, I’m here to tell you that the game HAS changed significantly over the last (roughly) 25 years since I became involved with it. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes somewhere in between, depending on your point of view.
So for those of you who enjoy a little history, or who wonder if things were better in the “good old days,” or would just like a little perspective on how we got to where we are today, here are X ways the game has changed over the last 25 or so years.
#1 – The Increase in Offense
If you look back at scorebooks, especially at the higher levels of play such as D1 college games, you would find a lot of games ended with a score of 1-0 or 2-1. You would probably also find that many of those games went into 8, 10, 12 or more innings to arrive at that finaly score.
There were a lot of reasons for that phenomenon, some of which we’re going to get into below. But regardless of the reasons, there typically wasn’t a whole lot of offense being produced back then.
Hits were a rarity – never mind the powerhouse slugfests we typically see today. Many of the “old school” types who played or coached in that era believe that’s when the game was at its best.
But the reality is unless you were a pitcher or a pitcher’s parents those games were kind of boring to watch, especially for the casual fan. So much so that on those rare occasions when ESPN would televise a game they would typically tape it, run it later, and edit out two or three innings where there were no hits or runs scored because they figured nothing happened so viewers weren’t missing anything.
That’s why many of the changes that follow were made – to make the game more accessible and interesting to the casual viewer so they could hike up ratings and capture those big TV dollars. Turns out that strategy was the right one because the 2024 Womens College World Series final games averaged 2 million viewers per game, and softball at all levels is more visible than ever on TV.
#2 – The Ball
This was one of the big changes made to try to increase offense.
The original ball for fastpitch softball was white with white seams. As a result, hitters would tend to see a screaming blur of white coming at them from a close distance, making it difficult to pick up on how the ball was spinning (which might give them a clue as to what it was going to do).
Today, of course, it is optic yellow with red seams. That makes it at least a little easier for hitters to pick up and follow to the plate overall, and gives them at least a shot at identifying the type of pitch being thrown so they can react accordingly.
That said, with all the bullet spin pitches being thrown these days picking up the seam direction is probably less important. Still, when facing pitchers who do have true spin on their balls it can help.
#3 – Pitching Distance
This was probably one of the biggest changes that helped the offense. Believe it or not, when I first became involved with the sport, the pitching distances were 35 feet up through 12U, and then 40 feet from 14U up.
That’s right – the college and international pitching distance was 40 feet!
Today, of course, only 11 and 12 year olds pitch from 40 feet. The extra three feet has helped older hitters gain a little more time to see the ball and execute their swings, resulting in more offense.
With so many more pitchers throwing at or near 70 mph, however, don’t be surprised if you start seeing a movement to push the pitching rubber back a little more in the near future.
#4 – More Offseason Training for Hitters
Today it’s almost a given that fastpitch softball players will go for hitting lessons pretty much year-round. That wasn’t always the case, though.
In fact, many players rarely picked up a bat when they weren’t in-season, or at least in the pre-season. Contrast that with pitchers training constantly in the offseason and you can see another reason why there was such an imbalance.
Today it’s pretty common to see players from 10 years old up either taking lessons or showing up to work on their swings in batting cages two or three times per week. They may not always have the greatest swings, but sheer repetition has helped them out-perform many of the players in the past.
#5 – The Proliferation of Facilities
The increase in the number of players who want to work out in the offseason has led to the growth of batting/pitching cage facilities throughout the U.S.
Back when my oldest daughter started playing you had to travel pretty far to find a space where you could pitch or hit in the offseason. And I live in a pretty high popular suburban area.
Today you can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a high-quality facility that offers not only cage space but also a weight training area, speed and agility classes, and a host of other options to help youth players develop their games. Sure beats trying to sneak into the local high school so you can get a few reps in.
#6 – More Instruction
When my oldest daughter announced she wanted to start pitching I had no idea of what to do to help her. I felt lucky to come across a coach from another team who gave pitching lessons, and would drive an hour to take her to those lessons either at a field in the summer or in a middle school gym in the winter.
This was pre-Internet, by the way, so it’s not like I could have done a Google search to find someone. It was all pretty much word of mouth.
It’s not too hard to find an instructor today. They are in every local facility, and most can be found through social media or a quick search on “fastpitch pitching instruction near me.”
Now, that’s good and bad. Good because you can find them, but bad because it allows a lot of unqualified people to hang out a shingle and take your money while leading you down a rabbit hole.
Still, with a little due diligence you can find someone who can help your daughter develop faster than she would through the trial-and-error method on her own. Which is a good thing.
#7 – The Uniforms
Now we get to some of the fun stuff.
When my oldest daughter started playing, college teams and international teams wore shorts. So naturally all of the youth players wore or wanted to wear shorts too.
In fact, the travel program my daughter was in had pants and I had to fight on their behalf to get the standard changed to shorts.
Then college teams started going to pants, largely driven by Arizona who was a powerhouse at that time. And then everyone else went back to pants.
There is that saying that what goes around comes around, so I can’t help but wonder if one day shorts will make a comeback. I’m sure all the manufacturers who sold those calf-length sliding pads are hoping that’s the case.
The other significant change in uniforms is how many today’s players often have. Back in the day it was normal to have two, which meant if you had a three- or four-day tournament someone was going to be doing laundry at home or in the hotel.
Today, of course, teams can have four or five uniforms, plus maybe a specialty one for a cause, plus practice uniforms. The players of the past are likely pretty jealous of all the options today’s players have.
#8 – Time Limits
This may be hard for today’s players and parents to believe, but once upon a time EVERY game went a minimum of seven innings. Longer if there was a tie at the end of seven, because in fastpitch softball games could not end in a tie.
Nowadays it’s common in travel ball tournaments for there to be an 1:15 time limit. Sometimes that means no new inning, other times it’s that the game stops at 1:15 and if the inning isn’t over you revert back to the previous inning.
The addition of a time limit definitely makes it a different game. It’s critical for your team to start fast on offense and not make too many errors on defense early on, because you may not have the time to make up for any issues later.
It’s also a challenge for coaches who want to give all of their players ample playing time. One rough inning and those kids who started on the bench may not see the field. Or else the coach will have to put in subs in the middle of an inning, which usually doesn’t make anyone happy.
Time limits have also had a lot of other effects on the game. You can read more about my thoughts on this big topic here and here.
#9 – Offseason Training
For much of my early coaching career it was rare for teams in areas where there was a lot of cold and snow to do any practicing during the offseason. Dedicated facilities were rare, and local schools often didn’t like to rent out there gyms to outside programs so they’d charge an arm and a leg and then make it difficult to schedule times.
The program I was with was a rare exception. We worked out a deal with the local Park District to offer “open clinics” on Saturday mornings, which would give us an hour a week to work with our teams, plus any other players in the area who wanted to sign up. We’d actually draw a pretty good cross-section of dedicated players from various teams, essentially training our competitors.
Today it’s not uncommon for teams to practice two or three times a week in dedicated baseball/softball facilities, either their own or facilities they rent. It shows up in the way they play, which quite honestly is far better overall than many of the teams of yesteryear.
#10 – Winter Games
Readers in California, Florida, Arizona, and other southern states will have no idea what I’m talking about, but for those of us in cold weather states the addition of games and tournaments during the winter has been a huge change.
There are more domes and other large turf facilities than ever, which opens up the ability for teams to play two or three times a month if they choose. While I still believe there is more value to practice than games in terms of learning the sport, I will also admit that practicing all the time without any games to measure your progress can be boring.
Having the ability to mix games in with offseason practice has been a huge plus for today’s players.
#11 – The Technology
This has been a huge advance for today’s players over those in the past. Let’s start with bats.
Back in the day if you had a Louisville Burgundy bat (old timers, you know the one) you were highly privileged. Today most players wouldn’t use that for a practice bat.
Bat technology has advanced so much that now even a checked swing can result in a double if you hit a gap. One more reason scores now are more like 7-5 instead of 1-0.
But there is also technology like 4D Motion, Rapsodo, Blast, Pocket Radar and others than can deliver hard data instead of just having coaches eyeball a pitch or a swing and guess what’s going on. Not to mention high-speed video such as OnForm that lets you slow down the skill, mark it up, and really analyzed it to the Nth degree.
Finally, there is game scoring technology such as GameChanger that not only lets family and friends who can’t attend the game follow along (or see how their favorite players did afterwards) but also provide coaches with a lot of statistical data about how their teams are doing without all the hassle of transferring the information from a paper scorebook to a spreadsheet.
Of course, the data is only as good as the person who is keeping the book, but that was also true for a paper scorebook. The nice thing is it’s easier to pull it up when you want to get a feel for how your players are doing.
#12 – The Cost
Most of the changes we have talked about have been positive. This one might be more of a negative.
Back in the day, a typical team fee for a travel ball team was $400 – $800 dollars, either with or without uniform. Those fees would cover not only tournament and practice field fees but also team equipment such as bats, helmets, and catcher’s gear.
(Yes Virginia, in the old days teams would actually supply a few bats and helmets for shared team use. We’ve come along way since then.)
These days travel ball fees can run into the thousands of dollars. It’s not unusual for families whose daughters are playing on high-level teams to pay $10,000 a year or more, not counting travel fees which are additional.
Sure, we can talk about inflation and the numbers not quite being the same. But I guarantee even if you account for those differences the cost has gone up significantly.
The price of progress, I suppose. But it does mean young ladies who once might have been interested in playing fastpitch softball have now been priced out of the market, unfortunately.
Ok, those are some of the changes I have seen. What have I missed? What have you seen change within your time in the sport, whether that’s two years or 20 years? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Re-Thinking the Traditional Batting Order
One of the most important responsibilities a team coach has is putting together a batting order that will produce runs. Yet all too often these same coaches become so bound to a particular way of thinking that they don’t take advantage of opportunities that might be available to them if they’re willing to think a little bit outside the box.
Let’s start with what is the norm for most teams. The traditional batting order usually looks something like this:
- Leadoff – Fastest girl who can put the ball in play reliably; often a slapper if one is available; tends to hit mostly singles; often called a “table setter”
- Two hitter – Primary job is to move the leadoff along when she gets on base, either by hitting a single, bunting, or hitting behind the runner; mostly puts the ball in play on the ground
- Three hitter – Best all-around hitter on the team; can hit for power, hit for average, doesn’t strike out much; her job is to bring the table setters in
- Cleanup – Your most powerful hitter, the girl who is a threat to go yard any time she steps up to the plate; not too worried about average so it’s ok if she strikes out a lot as long as she hits those deep balls
- Five hitter – Second-best all-around hitter on the team; she’d be the three hitter if three wasn’t there; maybe has a little lower average or slugging percentage than three but still a huge threat at the plate
- Six hitter – She’s ok and you hope to get her on base but you also know it’s not as likely; mostly a singles hitter, might be good at drawing walks
- Seven hitter – Great defensive player
- Eight hitter – Shows flashes of being good but not strong enough to make the top five; probably there to drive in six and/or seven in case either one is fortunate enough to get on base
- Nine hitter – Second base candidate for leadoff; while she thinks you put her there because you think she’s bad, you’re actually hoping she gets on base so the top of the lineup can drive her in; generally fast, could be a developing slapper; OR, your worst hitter who you’re trying to limit in how many times she comes to the plate
That’s a lineup that has worked for many teams for decades, and certainly a valid approach. But it’s not the only one.
One of the determining factors should be your personnel, i.e., your players and how they hit. A smart coach will look at who he/she has available and will try to take the best advantage of them regardless of what the “experts” say.
And in doing so, he/she may just catch the more traditional-thinking coaches off guard as they call pitches based on their assumptions. Here are a couple of examples.
More power at the top
Instead of opening with a couple of table setters, try taking a traditional five hitter and batting her at leadoff. She hits for average so will likely get on base, and since she also hits for power she could lead off the game with a double or triple.
That way you already have a runner in scoring position after one batter and have three outs to bring her in. Statistically you’re more likely to score in that situation than if you get a runner on first and sacrifice her to second. You also deflate the opposing team (and especially their pitcher) psychologically by opening with a big hit.
Then put your traditional three hitter in the two spot. A second big hit in a row scores the first one and probably leaves this hitter in scoring position as well.
Worst case you have two runners on base with no outs, with one or both already in scoring position. Then put your cleanup hitter in the three slot.
If she goes yard you have three runs before you have any outs, and even if she just hits a deep fly ball that’s caught you score one and probably advance the other runner to second or third where you still have two outs to bring her in. Worst case she strikes out but you still have two more outs to score at least one run.
From there, you can bunch your traditional one, two, and nine hitters to see if you can scratch a couple more runs together. You might want to put two in the four spot so that the traditional four, if she gets on base, isn’t in the way of your speedsters.
With this lineup you maximize the number of at-bats your best hitters get while minimizing the at-bats of your weakest hitters. It does create a potential hitter desert at the bottom of the lineup so you have to hope the top does its job so you’re not depending on the bottom to win a close game.
But hey, no risk, no reward.
Focus on speed
What if you don’t have any (or at least not many) big hitters? In that case you might want to bunch your fastest players (who can hit) at the top and try to create havoc and errors with aggressive baserunning.
Your leadoff hitter would be the same as a traditional lineup. But then bring the traditional nine up to the two slot, and follow her with another speedster in the three slot.
With three girls who can get on base with a slight bobble you are putting a lot of pressure on the defense to perform. And as we’ve all seen, errors often happen in bunches.
Force one bad throw that results in an extra base or two, then keep applying the pressure, and you may get another, or a fielding error as the fielder tries to rush her play on the ball. You could easily end up with a run or two without the ball leaving the infield.
You could also end up with demoralized opponents, especially if the opposing coach has to stop the game to yell at his/her players about making plays.
After those first three, put in whoever is closest to a traditional three (great power, great average) to see if you can clear whoever is left off the bases. You can then start again with speed, or if you have a traditional cleanup hitter put her in there before going back to the speed game.
The 5-4 lineup
There is probably a better name for this one but this is what I call it.
Basically what you’re doing is structuring the lineup so the first five hitters follow the tradition lineup. But then then next four act like a second top of the lineup.
In other words, your six hitter would probably be your traditional nine – the girl who would be leadoff if you didn’t have your one hitter. The seven hitter will be a traditional six – decent hitter but not good enough to crack the top five.
The eight hitter would be the same, a budding traditional three or five. Then the nine spot would be that great defensive player. You’re basically willing to take the out, or maybe that’s a good spot for the designated player to add one more decent bat to the lineup.
The turtle parade
This one is definitely driven by your personnel. And as you can probably guess by the name, while your team can hit pretty well it’s not exactly blessed with speed.
In this case I’d say take your fastest player who can get on base regularly and put her in the leadoff spot. She may not be all that fast, but compared to the others she’s a rabbit so give her the opportunity to run.
From there, if everyone is about 4 seconds or more down to first, base your lineup on batting averages – highest in the two spot, second highest in the three spot, etc. Figure you’re going to mostly be running station-to-station, so give the most reliable hitters the most at-bats.
Just be sure not to put the slowest turtle in the nine spot, because if she gets on base your only girl with any speed at all is going to be stuck behind her.
Be creative
Those are just a few options. A lot of what you can or should do will depend on who you have on your team and how consistent they are.
One other thing to keep in mind is how they handle things psychologically. I can tell you from personal experience I was a good three or five hitter, but for whatever reason struggled at four.
I’ve also coached girls who could hit .750 from the seven spot, but put them at one or two and they folded like a cheap card table. When weighing your options be sure to account for those factors.
With a little creativity, however, and a willingness to buck the norms (even when the parents don’t get it) you can find a lineup that helps you produce more runs and win more ballgames. And look like an offensive guru in the process.
Little Things That Make a Big Difference
It seems like softball coaches, players, and especially parents are always in search of the “silver bullet” – that one technique or piece of knowledge or magic adjustment that will take an average (or below-average) player and turn her into a superstar.
That desire is actually what keeps a lot of what I would call charlatans – people who claim to have a “secret sauce” when really what they have is a knack for hyping otherwise very ordinary solutions – in business. It’s also what drives some of the incredibly crazy drills or controversial posts you see on social media.
Well, that and a need to constantly feed things into the social media machine so they can keep getting those clicks.
In my experience there is no single silver bullet or secret sauce drill that can turn an average player into a superstar overnight. There is no “next big thing” either.
But there are a lot of little things that can make a huge difference in your game if you learn to execute them properly. Here’s a little collection of some of them.
Pitching a rise ball
The rise ball is often the toughest pitch to learn. That’s because getting true backspin on a 12 inch softball (versus the typical bullet spin) requires the pitcher to do some things that work against the body’s natural tendencies.
One of the biggest has to do with what the hand and forearm do at release.
The natural movement for the hand and forearm as they pass the back leg is to pronate, i.e., turn inward. If you hold your arm up and let it just drop behind you, you’ll see that inward turn when you get to the bottom of the circle.
Try it for yourself, right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
When you’re throwing a rise ball, however, you have to keep the hand and forearm in supination, i.e., pointed outward, as you go into release if you want to be able to cut under the ball and achieve backspin. Otherwise you’re throwing a drop ball.
What often happens, however, is that in trying to keep the forearm and hand pointed out, the pitcher will cup her hand under the ball so the palm is pointed toward the sky or ceiling. That may work to impart backspin when doing drills from a short distance away, but it will also create a “big dot” spin instead of a more efficient and active “small dot” spin when thrown full-out.
So, to throw a true backspin rise the pitcher needs to learn to keep the palm of her hand pointed mostly out to the side, with just a slight cupping of the fingers. In other words, throw with more of a fastball-type orientation (fingers down) going into release, then angle the hand back up slightly so the fingertips are under the ball instead of to the side.
Do that and you have a much better chance of getting 6 to 12 backspin. (For those unfamiliar with that term, think of an analog clock, with the spin direction moving from the bottom at 6:00 to the top at 12:00.)
Another key is to freeze the fingers at release rather than trying to twist the ball out like a doorknob.
Again, twisting or “twizzling” the ball (as Rick Pauly calls it) will work when you’re self-spinning or throwing at a short distance. But once you try to put any energy into the ball, your hand’s natural tendency to pronate or turn in (remember that from a few minutes ago?) will cause you to turn the palm forward and create bullet spin.
Now, if you can throw the ball 70 mph or more, I suppose it doesn’t matter how your rise ball is spinning so you can get away with that. But if you’re not, forget the twizzling and make sure your hand simply cuts under the ball like a 9 iron hitting a golf ball onto the green and you’ll have a lot more success with it.
Bend in slightly to the curve ball
The curve ball tends to have the opposite problem. Here, you want your hand to be palm-up (if you’re throwing a cut-under curve) so the spin axis is on top of the ball.
The problem is many pitchers will tend to extend their spines a little as they go to throw the curve, which will naturally make the hand tend to sag down, turning the palm more out and away rather than up.
To avoid that issue, try bending in slightly over your bellybutton (on the sagittal plan for those who love the technical terms). That slight bowing in makes it easier to maintain a palm-up orientation, placing the spin axis on the top of the ball and creating a better chance for the fast, tight spin that enables a late break.
Get hitting power from your hips, not your arms
Look, I get it. You hold your bat in your hands, which are at the ends of your arms. So logically you would think to hit the ball harder you should use your arms more if you want to swing the bat harder.
And yes, that will work if you’re on a tee, where the ball isn’t moving. But if you’re not 7 years old, it won’t work so well when the ball is moving.
The reason is when you use the arms to create power, you give up control of the bat. You’re just yanking it wildly and hoping something good would happen.
The better approach is to use your hips (and core) to generate energy through body rotation. More energy, in fact, than you can create with your arms.
Then use the arms to easily direct that energy toward the ball. Approaching it this way will give you the adjustability you need to take the bat to where the ball is going instead of where it was when you first started the swing.
Generating power from the hips first also gives you more time to see the ball before you have to commit the bat, further allowing you to fine-tune the path of the bat to where the ball will be when it gets close to the plate.
Remember, the difference between a great contact and a weak one, or no contact for that matter, can be measured in centimeters (fractions of an inch for those who don’t remember the metric system from school). The ability to make fine adjustments during the swing is often the difference between a great hit and a poor one. Or none at all.
Shoulder tilt creates bat angle
While we’re talking hitting, another small adjustment has to do with the angle of the shoulders at contact.
We’ve all heard the instruction to “swing level” at some point or another. Many of you may have even said it, or say it now.
But if by swing level you mean having the bat parallel to the ground you’re just asking for a season filled with pop-ups and ground balls.
If you look at great hitters at the point of contact, you’ll see that 99 times out of 100 they have an angle on the bat that slopes down from the handle to the barrel. If you look a little further, you’ll see that the angle of the bat usually matches the angle of the shoulders.
So…if you want to get a great bat angle to hit rising line drives and other powerful hits, you don’t really need to manipulate the bat. You just need to let the back shoulder tilt downwards toward the ball. This preferably happens about halfway through the turn rather than dropping the shoulder first and then turning.
Think of the back shoulder as an aiming device. Once you see where the ball is headed, take the back shoulder in that direction and swing on a plane that matches the shoulder angle.
Before you can say “Bob’s your uncle” (always wanted to use that one) you’re crushing the ball deep – without having to do any crazy manipulations.
A better way to put on your glove or mitt
Given the power of the Internet to spread information I’m surprised that this little trick isn’t more well-known.
When most people put on a softball glove or mitt, they tend to put it on as they do a regular glove, i.e., one finger in each slot. I mean, it makes sense, right?
But that’s now how the pros do it. The problem with the one finger, one slot approach is that you ring and little fingers are your two weakest fingers. Far weaker than the index and middle fingers.
So when you go to catch the ball, your weakest (little) finger is trying to close at least half, if not more, of the glove by itself while the strongest part of your hand is closing the other half. You don’t have to be an anatomy expert to figure out why that can contribute to a lot more dropped or mis-handled balls.
Here’s a trick that can solve that issue: Take your ring and little finger, hold them together, and then slide them into the loop in the last finger stall. Then move each of the other fingers over one toward that end, leaving the area for the first finger open.
Now your two weakest fingers have combined to create one stronger finger, better balancing the closing power between the thumb and other side of your hand. You middle finger also gives somewhat of an assist to the other two.
And bonus, you no longer have to leave your index finger out of the glove to keep it from hurting when the ball hits the palm of the glove because it’s not in that spot anymore!
It’s going to feel awkward at first, especially because your hand won’t go into the glove quite as deeply. But try it for a month. You’ll never go back to the old way.
Little things mean a lot
None of these little tips are earth-shaking or revolutionary. But each of them can make a significant difference in your performance.
If you’re struggling with any of these issues, give these tips a try. It’s amazing the difference a slight adjustment can make.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 